According to the UN, children are starving to death in the Gaza Strip after months of war and blocked humanitarian aid. During a visit to the north of the region, which is largely cut off from aid, UN employees gathered information about severe malnutrition and starving children, said the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, on the X platform (formerly Twitter). Meanwhile, the UN emergency relief office Okha reported, citing the local Hamas-controlled health authority, that 15 children had died of malnutrition as of Sunday. This information could not initially be independently verified.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riad Mansour held up a photo in a speech to the UN General Assembly. This was intended to show a boy who was said to have died of malnutrition in a hospital in the Gaza Strip on the same day. “He was killed by Israel using hunger as a weapon,” Mansur claimed.
According to Ocha, 576,000 people in the region – a quarter of the population – are “one step away from famine.” According to the World Food Program, deliveries are hardly possible. Helpers were also hindered and convoys were looted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing ahead with a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and restricting humanitarian aid despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
UN: Air aid for Gaza is not enough
After the start of American air aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, the United Nations described the humanitarian supplies as insufficient. Every delivery helps, said spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York. “But it doesn’t match the size or scope of what we need.” Relief deliveries by truck overland are necessary. In view of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, the USA began supplying the civilian population there with relief supplies from the air at the weekend – other countries are also dropping humanitarian aid there from planes.
Agreement on ceasefire in Gaza on the brink
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding Hamas give in before further negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of more hostages in the Gaza war. First, as requested, the Islamist organizations must submit a list with the names of the hostages still alive in their control, said the right-wing head of government in a speech in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening.
On the same day, delegations from Hamas and the mediating states of the USA and Qatar arrived in Cairo for another round of talks. Israel, on the other hand, has not sent a delegation for the time being. Meanwhile, the fact that Benny Gantz, minister in Israel’s war cabinet, traveled to Washington for talks without Netanyahu’s consent caused sharp criticism internally, according to the Israeli media.
Gantz is pushing for an agreement and has said that the release of the hostages is more urgent and important than Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas.
Netanyahu: Will not capitulate to demands
Netanyahu said it was too early to say whether there would be a concept for a deal in the next few days. “We are making great efforts to be successful, but one thing is clear to you – we will not capitulate to Hamas’ delusional demands,” affirmed the head of government, who is under pressure domestically over the hostage issue.
He also first wants to know whether Hamas agrees to the number of Palestinian prisoners stated in the mediators’ last proposal that would have to be released in exchange for hostages. Netanyahu said he had not yet received an answer to his questions and rejected “international pressure to end the war” before Israel had achieved all of its goals.
Media reports recently said that 40 hostages could be exchanged for 400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Report: Hamas leader wants to sabotage negotiations
According to local media reports, there are doubts in Israeli circles as to whether an agreement on a hostage release and a ceasefire will be reached before the fasting month of Ramadan, holy for Muslims, which begins around March 10th. Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar, is deliberately trying to sabotage negotiations to provoke unrest across the Middle East during Ramadan, Israeli news site Ynet quoted a senior Israeli official as saying.
“Sinwar prefers to escalate tensions in the Middle East and cause bloodshed and chaos in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan rather than choosing the alternative of a six-week ceasefire and humanitarian aid, which would significantly ease the suffering of the local population in the Gaza Strip,” said the officer.
Report: Israeli minister wants end to hostage deal negotiations
Israel’s right-wing police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for an end to negotiations over the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli media report. According to the Haaretz newspaper, the politician said at a meeting of his party on Monday that his party believes it is necessary to order the cessation of the talks, which also involve a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war. Instead, it is necessary to move into “a new phase of intense fighting,” the paper continued, quoting Ben-Gvir, who is also Minister for National Security.
High-level talks in Washington
Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Galant recently said that Hamas wanted to take the war from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. “Hamas’ goal is to burn Judea and Samaria (Hebrew for West Bank), and if possible the Temple Mount (in Jerusalem).” According to the news portal Axios, US President Joe Biden is urging Egypt and Qatar to persuade Hamas to a temporary ceasefire before Ramadan.
The three mediating states agree that reaching an agreement currently depends on Hamas. Hamas calls for a comprehensive ceasefire. According to US information, the mediator’s proposal only provides for a six-week ceasefire. An unnamed Israeli official was quoted by Axios as saying he believes the chances of an agreement are 50-50.
Meanwhile, Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, arrived in Washington where he plans to meet with US Vice President Kamala Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan today. Gantz said in January: “The most urgent matter is the repatriation of the hostages; it is more important than any element of the fight.”
According to media reports, the Israeli politician wants to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. According to Axios, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is also expected in Washington on the same day.
Harris calls situation in Gaza a “humanitarian catastrophe”
US Vice President Harris described the conditions for the people in the Gaza Strip, which has been fought over for around five months, as inhumane and spoke of a humanitarian catastrophe. “Our hearts break (…) for all the innocent people in Gaza who are suffering from what is clearly a humanitarian disaster,” said Harris in Selma, Alabama.
“The people in Gaza are starving, the conditions are inhumane.” Harris called on Israel’s government to allow significantly more aid into the sealed-off coastal area and to open new border crossings.
Israel’s army reports more deaths in operations
Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues the fight against Hamas and says it has now killed a prominent member of the Islamists who was responsible for recruiting terrorists. The army announced on Sunday evening that Mahmoud Muhammad Abd Khad was also involved in raising funds for terrorism and to support Hamas’s military activities.
The army had previously announced that “more than 100 terrorists” had been killed in northern Gaza. In addition, 35 Hamas and Islamic Jihad facilities, including weapons depots and production facilities, were destroyed. “Dozens of terrorists” were arrested. All information provided by the Israeli military could not be independently verified.
The Gaza war was triggered by the terrorist attack by Hamas and other groups in southern Israel on October 7th last year. The terrorists killed 1,200 people in the unprecedented massacre and kidnapped 250 more as hostages in the Gaza Strip: Israel launched a military attack on the coastal area to crush Hamas. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, 30,410 Palestinians have died so far, although this number includes both civilians and fighters.
Israel’s military: Hezbollah positions attacked again
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it was again attacking positions of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. Warplanes hit a Shiite militia military facility in the area of Aita ash-Sha’b and terrorist infrastructure in the area of the Lebanese border town of Kfarkela, the army said.
During the day there were a number of rockets fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel. This information also could not be independently verified. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there has been repeated shelling in the Israeli-Lebanese border region. Israel’s Defense Minister Galant recently announced that he would increase military pressure on Hezbollah until the Shiite militia withdrew from the border with Israel.
Container ship attacked and damaged off the coast of Yemen
Another container ship was attacked and damaged off the coast of Yemen. The British Navy’s merchant shipping office UKMTO said there were two explosions in the incident southeast of the port city of Aden. After the first incident occurred at some distance from the ship, the ship was damaged by the second incident. A fire broke out on board. The case is being investigated by the Western Alliance for the Protection of Merchant Shipping, the statement added. There were initially no reports of deaths or injuries.
According to the Ambrey information service, it is said to be a ship that sails under the Liberian flag and was traveling from Singapore to Djibouti. Accordingly, the ship was used by an Israeli shipping company, at least in the past.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest attack. In recent weeks and months, however, the Islamist Houthi militia in Yemen has repeatedly targeted civilian merchant ships.
